COUNTY NEWS: Fears for children ahead of oil well testing in Sussex

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Published:13:55Wednesday 10 January 2018

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Residents said the decision from councillors for fracking firm Cuadrilla to return to Sussex to test an oil well came as ‘no shock’.

They now fear for children at the village’s primary school who will be able to ‘smell the fumes’.

Parents and children in Balcombe protesting against the plan

Balcombe resident and mother-of-two Georgia Betts, 37, told the Middy: “The sinister thing is all these fumes will be going into our children’s lungs. No one knows how much or what effect it will have on them.”

Parent and teacher Helen Savage, who spoke on behalf of FFBRA at the meeting, blamed the ‘narrow’ coursework within the planning regime for the decision.

“We are very disappointed but we expected it,” she said.

“Even if a councillor does not want to allow it there is not much they can do.

“Teachers and children said before they could hear lorries and smell the fumes. The main road goes right through the village.

“I rang the Environment Agency crying before because I could not sleep at night due to the noise.

“We are still going to fight this. We have over six thousand signatures on our online petition.”